


I’m A Fool For You Anyway

by BlackUnicorn



Series: Walking Into Love (With My Eyes Wide Open) [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Attempt at Humor, Bucky is Secretly a Huge Sap, Confused Clint Barton, Confused Tony, M/M, Non-Serum Steve Rogers, Non-Serum Steve Rogers/Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes | Shrinkyclinks, One Shot, POV Tony Stark, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Protective Bucky Barnes, Robot Invasion, Secret Relationship, Skinny!Steve, Sort Of, Steve Doesn't Take Anyone's Shit, The Avengers have no Sense of Privacy, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, but it's for a good cause, fighting robots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2019-03-23 11:33:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13786740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackUnicorn/pseuds/BlackUnicorn
Summary: "James has a secret"That's how it started. Tony is not sure he actually wanted to know how it ended.Or:The Winter Soldier was:-	Incredibly deadly-	Incredibly grumpy (especially in the morning when he hadn’t had his coffee yet)-	Skilled in ways Tony couldn’t even imagine-	Very private and secretive-	In general, a Very Terrifying PersonThe Winter Soldier was not:-	Flirty-	Cute and/or adorable (seriously what the hell?)-	An absolute motherhen-	A romantic sap-	A blushing, stuttering mess that was unable to string two words together





	I’m A Fool For You Anyway

“James has a secret.”, Natasha announced the second she entered the communal kitchen in the Tower. Tony and Clint, who had both been sitting at the table, each nursing a cup of coffee, looked up.

“The guy’s an ex – assassin, of course he’s got secrets.”, Tony replied, hoping that James wasn’t within earshot or otherwise this wasn’t going to end well.

See, James – the Winter Soldier – was about the most private person Tony had ever met. No one actually knew anything about him; not even S.H.I.E.L.D.

His name was James Barnes; presumably in his twenties (there was no actual birth certificate to prove that, though); he was stronger and faster than should be humanly possible; he spoke like ten different languages; he used to be the most feared assassin in the world before turning on HYDRA and chopping off most of the heads himself.

No one even knew where he came from and no one dared to ask because he was one of those people that knew about eight different way of killing you with a role of toilet paper.

One year ago, during the infamous battle of New York, he had just sort of shown up and saved the day and then stuck around and was now a member of the Avengers – Earth’s Mightiest Heroes™.

And apparently, he had a secret.

“Stark’s right. Why is this bothering you all of a sudden?”, Clint asked.

“It’s not, I just like to know things.”, Natasha shrugged, acting like it was nothing when clearly, it was something.

“You telling me that you, Natasha Romanoff, Russian Spy Extraordinaire, are unable to uncover someone’s secret?”, Tony teased her, “I’m shocked.”

The woman in question glared at him and Tony cursed himself for decreasing his lifespan once again; really being surrounded by ex – spies and ex – assassins wasn’t the best way to have a happily ever after.

“Like you’re not curious what Barnes gets up to when he leaves the Tower through his bedroom window.”

“He what?”

“I thought so.”

“How? When? Why?”

“I don’t know, Tony. That’s what I want to find out. Are you or are you not going to help me?”

And thus, ladies and gentlemen, ‘Operation WS’ was born.

* * *

 

James Barnes was a terrifying man, with his metal arm, and his certified death glare, and the weapon arsenal under his bed (Tony had had to find that one out in person), and he was also – as most assassins – a paranoid bastard.

Within the first week in the Tower, James had found a way to get past Tony’s genius security system and taken out every single camera and microphone on his floor and Tony hadn’t been able to activate them again ever since; he used the various entries and exits of the Tower in a spectacularly random pattern; he insisted on buying his own groceries, never using the same store twice. It was all fairly distressing.

It also meant that ‘Operation WS’ was far more complicated than originally thought.

The first time, Clint had tried to follow James after the latter had left at around 5 p.m. he had lost James in the crowd; as had happened the second and third time.

The fourth time, it had been Natasha to shadow James and they had all been certain that that would work…except it hadn’t. Natasha had ended up at a bingo with a group of 90 – year – old grandmas and James had been gone.

Tony had tried to hack the man’s laptop and cell phone but had come back empty handed and they had all begun to understand why the Winter Soldier had also been called ‘The Ghost’ during his time with HYDRA. He came and went without a trace and not even Natasha was able to keep up with him.

“Has anyone tried asking him?”, Clint wondered one evening over pizza.

“Clint, one does not simply ask the Winter Soldier things.”

“Ask me what?”

“Oh, hi James.”

James stood in the doorway of the kitchen next to Thor, his eyes narrowed and fixed on Tony who tried to calculate the possibilities of being murdered right there over his dinner.

“Ask me what?”, James repeated with a certain edge to his voice.

Tony threw a helpless glance at Clint who returned his gaze with a look that seemed to say ‘Well, it’s been nice knowing you’ before quickly turning back to his pizza.

“We were wondering if you had any secrets.”, Tony blurted out.

“Why?”

“Oh, you know…curiosity.”, he took it as a good sign that he wasn’t dead yet.

“Why?”

“Er – well – I mean…team bonding…”, _what the fuck, Stark?_

“No.” and with that, the Soldier left the kitchen, presumably to go to his floor or alternatively to go about his secrets.

“What secret is it that you are speaking of, Man of Iron?”, Thor asked confused.

“James has a secret.”, Tony echoed Natasha’s words of a few days ago.

“And is this a problem?”

“We don’t know, Thor. That’s why it’s a secret.”

“But why would the Soldier of Winter keep secrets from his friends?”, Thor asked, seeming genuinely confused.

“Good question.”

* * *

 

Two days later, Clint reported having overheard a phone call between James and someone called ‘Wilson’ before James had begun shooting at the ceiling and Clint had to make a strategic withdrawal from the air vent.

Now, all Avengers were in the Tower for a change, enjoying a late Sunday breakfast and Tony just couldn’t keep his eyes off the dark bruises on James’ neck while the younger man drank his coffee. No sugar, no milk. A dozen comments swirled around in Tony’s brain, one dumber than the other but all moving along the lines of ‘Did you get into a fight with a vacuum cleaner?’ – yeah no… _Bad idea, Tony. Bad idea._

“See something you like, Stark?”, James asked without even looking at him and Tony quickly averted his eyes, “Nope.”

“Good.”, it just wasn’t fair how such a softly spoken work could sound so threatening.

“You got plans today, James?”, Natasha asked when James placed his empty mug on the sink and started walking out.

“I do, actually.”

Half an hour later, four Avengers were out on the streets of New York, trying to keep track of their teammate without being too obvious about it. They followed James to a little store where he bought Irish Whisky and a pack of cigarettes, after that into the subway where James spent the whole ride sweettalking an old lady which was highly disturbing to watch, they got out of the Subway and practically walked all the way back to where they had started, and Tony kind of got the feeling that James was having the time of his life, making them chase him all through the city. After a quick stop at a coffee shop, James sat down in the park, nursing his drink while smoking and then –

“Where the fuck did he go?”, Clint exclaimed.

A large group of European tourists had just passed, blocking their view for about half a minute but now James was gone, leaving behind only the take away cup with a post it note stuck to it.

 

_Good luck finding me_

_WS_

 

“Son of a bitch.”

* * *

 

It wasn’t that they had forgotten, far from it, just that intergalactic terrorist warnings usually tended to shift ones focus to more pressing matters…for example to the small army of robots currently invading the city.

“ _I swear, what is it with Alien invasions and New York City?_ ”, Hawkeye cursed over the coms, “ _It’s like we’ve got a sign plastered to the Statue of Liberty saying ‘please, land here’_.”

Tony had to agree. After the Chitauri attack, there had been some minor incident every month or two, always in New York. On the upside, the people seemed to be used to it by now, and while the Avengers were doing their best to keep the damage to a minimum while also trying to shut down the everlasting flow of new robots, most everyone kept going about their everyday life like theren't currently were mini – Death Stars blowing up the buildings left and right.

“ _Concentrate on that swarm by Time Square, Barton, and stop complaining._ ”, the Black Widow snapped and Tony watched her while she jumped on top of one of the bots, ripped out some cables and let it tumble to the ground where it went up in a ball of fire while she had long since proceeded to the next one.

Things went fine.

It seemed like they had finally put a lid on the can and could now concentrate on the bots that were left; Thor swinging his hammer like a baseball bat, Widow basically running parkour over the bots, Hawkeye and the Winter Soldier having some weird sniper competition, and Tony showing off his flying skills while blasting these motherfuckers out of the sky.

Things went fine.

Until they didn’t.

“ _Блядь_ _!_ ”

Tony had no idea what that meant but it seemed relatable, seeing as Grand Central Station just went up in a giant explosion, sending a dark cloud of dust, dirt, debris, and Iron Man into the sky.

Tony’s ears were ringing while he carefully tried to push himself up from the ground; people were screaming, running around aimlessly, trying to get away.

“ _Iron Man, come in_.”, he heard Natasha’s voice, practically shouting into his ear but he couldn’t move, “ _Iron Man, come in_.”

“ _Stark!_ ”

“’m fine.”, Tony managed to lift the face of his suit, gasping for air but inhaling nothing but ashes, sending him into a violent coughing fit.

“ _I’m fine, my ass. Where the fuck are you?_ ”, James asked in his usual rough voice.

“Always where the party is, Barnes, Always where the party is.”

“ _Don’t move._ ” and well, who was he to disobey such a direct order?

“Sir…Mister Stark, are you okay?”, a pair of blue eyes appeared in his field of vision.

“Never better.”, Tony pressed out.

“ _I beg to differ, sir, but I detect several superficial injuries on your body._ ”

“Shut up, JARVIS”

“Can I help you somehow”, Blue Eyes asked, apparently completely unperturbed by the bodiless voice of the suit.

“I could use a drink.”

“ _I strongly advise against that, sir._ ”, JARVIS protested and Blue Eyes’ mouth twitched, “What he said.”

There was bit of a commotion and Tony could hear the tell tale sounds of his team approaching, “Tony,”, Natasha kneeled down next to him, “Do you need a doctor?”

“I’m fine. Just a few scratches.”

“You said that last time when you had a concussion and three broken ribs.”, Clint added in a not – so – helpful manner.

“Man of Iron, you do need to take better care of yourself.”

“Yeah thanks, Thor…tell that to the Aliens that keep blowing up the city.”, Tony grumbled and carefully climbed out of a suit to stand up. He did seem fine, if you ignored the giant headache and the tremor in his left arm. He looked around and saw that the place was already swarming with paramedics, firemen and helpful civilians, before his eyes fell on Blue Eyes. He was small, like, really small. And skinny. His blond hair was sticking to his forehead, there was a crust of dried blood just over his right eyebrow and his lip was busted although it looked like that was not a fresh injury but rather a few days old.

“What about you? You okay?”, he asked the guy who nodded, “I’m fine, thanks.”, he flashed a smile at Tony and stepped back as if to walk away – and froze, his eyes pinned to something behind Tony.

Tony looked around to see what the guy was looking at and the first thing he noticed was James who was walking up to them but – but he was paying no attention whatsoever to his team, “Steve?”, he asked in utter disbelief.

“Hey Buck.”, Blue Eyes – Steve – smiled innocently while James ( _Buck? Was even a word?_ ) walked straight past the Avengers, a murderous expression on his face “Oh, nonono, don’t you ‘hey, Buck’ me.”, he exclaimed coming even closer to Steve who – did not step back?

W _hat the hell?_

“Look, I have a perfectly reasonable explanation –“, Steve too a deep breath, “- if you just gave me minute it thing of one”

And that seemed to be the moment when something inside of the Winter Soldier snapped, “What the actual _fuck_ , Rogers?,” he roared, “You had one job. _One job_! Don’t. Do. Anything. Stupid! There’s a reason why I told you to stay away for a few days!”

Tony was pretty sure he would have tried to leave the country by now if it had been him on the receiving end of the Winter Soldier’s rage but this guy, Steve, this small, nondescript human being, threw out his chest and raised his chin before replying with just as much heat, “And there’s a reason why I stayed!”, he threw back, “You’re not the boss of me, Barnes. If I decide I wanna stay in New York, I fucking will.”

“And get yourself killed in the process?!”

“I’m not dead, though, am I?”

“That’s not the point, Stevie!”

Both men were now standing directly in each other’s space. Big and beefy versus small and skinny and right now, Tony wasn’t even sure anymore who would have won in a fight because _damn_ , Steve might be nothing but skin and bones but he more than made up for that with his attitude.

“Then pray tell, Bucky, what is the point?”, Steve gave the Winter Soldier a challenging look and James just looked at him for a moment, apparently searching for the right words before letting out a long, frustrated grown and closing the distance. For a second, Tony actually thought James was going to attack the other guy and, in a way, he did. With his mouth. On Steve’s lips.

_What?_

One look at his teammates told Tony that they were just as startled as he was, which soon turned into horror when the mess of arms and tongue let out something that sounded suspiciously like a moan before they broke apart, “You’re such a fucking punk,” James panted, “You could have died, Stevie and I can’t – I couldn’t – “

“I know, I know,” all the fight seemed to have left Steve as he wrapped his arms even tighter around the taller man, “I’m sorry. But I’m okay Buck. I’m okay.”, he pressed another kiss to James’ lips and grinned, “Jerk.”

Tony blinked rapidly while the two men just kind of stared into each other’s eyes and Tony had never even thought it possible to see James being so…soft. Both hands, flesh and metal, were cradling Steve’s face like it was something precious, something made of gold and diamonds but that was nothing compared to the look in his eyes. The deep trust and concern and…love.

“Ahem,” Tony cleared his throat, “Not to be rude or anything but…what the fuck is going on?”

Steve turned away from James to face the other Avengers, that bright smile back in place, “Right sorry,”, he extended a hand, “I’m Steve Rogers. Bucky’s boyfriend.”

“Bucky.”, Tony repeated numbly while he could hear Clint whisper “Boyfriend?”

“Oh yeah,” Steve nodded, completely ignoring the dark glare James gave him that seemed to say ‘don’t you dare’, “His full name is James Buchanan Barnes.”

“Of course it is.”, Tony muttered while James scowled even harder and Steve smirked mischievously, “So…how’d you two meet?”

“I kinda got into a fight and he saved my ass, so I offered him a place to stay.”, Steve replied with a shrug because, of course, you offer an ex – HYDRA – assassin your bedroom after he got you out of a fight.

“Speaking of fights,” James spoke up, attention solely turned on Steve, “What happened to your lip?”

“Er – I...fell?”, Steve answered sheepishly and James raised a single eyebrow at him, “It really wasn’t my fault, Buck, I swear,” Steve quickly added, “There was this guy who stole this woman’s purse and I just didn’t have a choice.”

James let out an exasperated sound and shook his head but said nothing.

“You get into a lot of fights?”, Clint asked.

“Not that many,” Steve answered, causing James to laugh – Tony didn’t think he’d ever seen the Winter Solder laugh – “I beg to differ,” the brunette said, “In the five year I’ve known you, has there ever been a week where you didn’t feel obliged to correct some social injustice or other?”

“Er…”

“My point exactly.”

“Wait – five years?!”, Clint exclaimed. Tony completely understood. This was…this was _huge_. Tony could practically see his entire world – view collapse right before his eyes.

“Sure.”, Steve shrugged again and Tony thought he might pass out.

* * *

 

Apparently, it went like this:

The Winter Soldier, James Buchanan Barnes, bred and born into HYDRA on the 10th of March, 1984, spent 23 years working for the secret organization before deciding that he’d had enough and burned down the main base in Russia.

He came to the US and landed in D.C. where he met one Steven Grand Rogers, a poor art student with more sass than his frail body could contain, and who kindly took him in. The improbable friendship turned into improbable love and Steve basically taught Bucky how to be his own person with the help of their friend Sam Wilson.

One year ago, Steve had expressed the wish to move back to Brooklyn where he had grown up, and Bucky had followed, insert Chitauri invasion and the first reappearance of the Winter Soldier on American soil in a nearly a decade and his joining of the Avengers Initiative.

* * *

 

During the whole story, Steve and James – _Bucky_ – kept throwing each other these incredibly tender, intimate glances, kept bickering and flirting with each other, and Tony was pretty sure he had broken his brain, trying to reconcile this new image of the Winter Soldier with the one he had known for an entire year because _fuck!_

The Winter Soldier was:

  * Incredibly deadly
  * Incredibly grumpy (especially in the morning when he hadn’t had his coffee yet)
  * Skilled in ways Tony couldn’t even imagine
  * Very private and secretive
  * In general, a Very Terrifying Person



 

The Winter Soldier was not:

  * Flirty
  * Cute and/or adorable ( _seriously what the hell?_ )
  * An absolute motherhen
  * A romantic sap
  * A blushing, stuttering mess that was unable to string two words together



 

Except when it came to Steve, because where Steve was concerned, Bucky seemed to defy every single expectation that was thrown at him.

**Author's Note:**

> Блядь = Fuck
> 
> [Find me on Tumblr =)](https://dreamworldvictim.tumblr.com/)


End file.
